1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to deploying applications in a “cloud” compute environment.
2. Background of the Related Art
An emerging information technology (IT) delivery model is cloud computing, by which shared resources, software and information are provided over the Internet to computers and other devices on-demand. Cloud computing can significantly reduce IT costs and complexities while improving workload optimization and service delivery. With this approach, an application instance can be hosted and made available from Internet-based resources that are accessible through a conventional Web browser over HTTP. An example application might be one that provides a common set of messaging functions, such as email, calendaring, contact management, and instant messaging. A user would then access the service directly over the Internet. Using this service, an enterprise would place its email, calendar and/or collaboration infrastructure in the cloud, and an end user would use an appropriate client to access his or her email, or perform a calendar operation.
Cloud compute resources are typically housed in large server farms that run network applications, typically using a virtualized architecture wherein applications run inside virtual servers, or so-called “virtual machines” (VMs), that are mapped onto physical servers in a data center facility. The virtual machines typically run on top of a hypervisor, which is a control program that allocates physical resources to the virtual machines.
It is known in the art to provide appliance-based or platform-based solutions to facilitate rapid adoption and deployment of cloud-based offerings. Typically, a cloud-based offering is deployed as a cloud application package. One such appliance that may be used for this purpose is IBM® Workload Deployer, which is based on the IBM DataPower® 7199/9005 product family. Typically, the appliance is positioned directly between the business workloads that many organizations use and the underlying cloud infrastructure and platform components. Alternatively, cloud application packages may be deployed using platform-as-a-service (PAS) infrastructure, such as the IBM® SmartCloud® Orchestrator open cloud management platform. A management platform of this type typically comprises several layers including an infrastructure services layer for provisioning, configuring and managing storage, compute and network resources, a platform services layer, and an orchestration services layer to provide business process management. The platform services layer includes virtual machine image lifecycle management capabilities and pattern services, wherein a “pattern” provides deployment and management instructions for the business service. A pattern preferably is an XML-based definition of an infrastructure configuration required to provision and managed the various resources (e.g., compute, networking, storage, OS, middleware, and the like) for a specific application (or application-type) workload.
Software is never 100% safe, as new defects and vulnerabilities are discovered every day. Cloud application packages are no different; indeed, often just a few days after an application package has been published into the cloud, it may already contain new vulnerabilities. While current deployment solutions provide numerous advantages, there remains a need to address the problem of deploying applications that can be exploited by later-discovered or post-deployment vulnerabilities or other defects.